BBOXX:

I was recommended to BBOXX – an engineering company focused on solar power â by a friend of mine who used to work forÂ them in Rwanda. After completing a couple of freelance assignments for them they finally agreed with me that their visual identity was a mess and decided to hire me as their Head of Design and let me clean it up.

When I joined I was presented with a logo and the main colour. First thing I did was to present a couple of alternative options – I didn’t feel the existing logo (as it later turned out – put together in 5 minutes on one of the meetings) was in line with what the company represented.

It turned out, however, that the company’s branding was already widespreadÂ in the market and so, in order not to confuse the customers, it was decided that I should stick to the blue “b”. I did manage to convince the team to change the typography though, and I promptly applied it to the logo, giving it slightly more professional vibe. Since then I came a long way â during my 1.5 years-long employment I managed to take the scraps I was given and create a consistent branding that was also in-line with companyâs philosophy.

It was a challenging process, considering the very specific requirements and the vast range of the materials that were needed – from simple leaflets, through animations, to their website. BBOXXâs clients are mostly located Â in rural Africa and the majority of the products/services were targeted to households with low to medium income, located off electrical grid. I had no previous knowledge about designing for this particular social group, but my employers did their best to give me advice on how I should proceed, stressing out the importance of colours and usage of visual aids.

Being the only person with a creative background it was entirely my responsibility to create satisfactory designs following the guidance that they provided me with. As challenging as it was at times, throughout my employment I managed to get to understand the market better, learned to conduct research basing on social sciences and deal with the workload that comes with companyâs rapid growth. When my employment terminated, I felt proud to leave behind a solid base of designs as well as clear instruction on creating further branded materials.

While working for BBOXX I was also requested to design a campaign celebrating our products generating 1 megawatt of power. It gave me a chance to work outside of BBOXXâs branding aesthetics and come up with something entirely different. I was given a set of taglines that I was to illustrate and create a series of posters raising awareness about energy issues in developing world. I was inspired by African textiles, the richness of their colours and patterns and wanted to reflect it in the campaign. I was also asked to design a separate logo for that purpose.